Tag Archives: holidays

Time to be honest. Time to ‘fess up. You’ve not seen any Weight Watchers posts from me in while and maybe you’re wondering what is happening? Well, nothing is happening. In the midst of marathon training, which took over my life for training and the race, and then the holidays, I stopped going. I missed a couple meetings because it became more important to not get up early on Saturday’s since I was up so early on Sunday mornings to run. Maybe I could have gone to a different meeting, but in my mind, if I couldn’t go to my beloved meeting, I wasn’t going to go.

My eating became all about fueling my body for marathon training. I ate to keep up the energy I needed to run all the miles. I grew tired of certain foods that were a staple for me, such a bananas and peanut butter. And amongst all of this, I quit tracking.

Back in September, I stopped going to meetings and cancelled my membership. If I wasn’t following the plan, I didn’t want to pay for it. I was focused on marathon training. When I got past the marathon, it really took several weeks for my body to get over the fact that I was no longer seriously training and did not need all the food.

Then the holidays came. Always a busy time of year, we had a lot going on between work, parties, family get-togethers, and taking time off.

Are these all excuses? Maybe. But, I did what I had to do at that time. But now, I am working towards getting back on track. To finding my way back to healthier eating and less indulging. I know I gained weight during marathon training – it is an evil twist in a plan to run 26.2 miles. It seems like you would lose weight, but you don’t. I gave myself a pass because I could only focus on one HUGE goal at once.

I have not been on a scale since my last Weight Watchers meeting. I have no idea what my weight is. This scares me a little bit because I can feel that I’ve put on weight, but I also feel incredibly strong.

In an effort to get back on track, I’ve been making small changes the last couple of weeks. Getting back to habits that have always been important – and successful – in my weight loss. As part of this, I am taking time on Saturdays or Sundays to celebrate small victories from my week. These are from the last two weeks:

I start off my week with several small goals in mind. I really had to nix the Starbucks habit that took over the holidays (although it was a delicious habit) and I’m really trying to get back to taking snacks and lunch, even when I feel too busy to do so. Meal planning is very helpful in this. All of these will become a habit over time again.

Will I go back to Weight Watchers? For now, the answer is no. I love Weight Watchers and I will always credit it for teaching me how to live healthy and make lifestyle changes for weight loss success without depriving myself of foods that I love. I might one day. There are so many things I love about it. But, right now it’s not an expense I cannot justify. I know the plan inside and out, I need to make it work on my own.

I will continue to work on making small changes that will eventually add up to big results. In addition to focusing on balance this year, I am also working on all things in moderation. Eat healthy, workout, enjoy indulgences from time to time, and take care of myself. I can also help hubby with this as he starts a weight loss challenge of his own. Taking care of myself will carry over to taking care of us.

At some point, I will get on a scale. But for now, I am focusing on how I feel rather than what the scale says.

Would you like to join me? Share your small victories on Instagram and use the hashtag #celebratesmallvictories – comment on this post and leave me your Instagram name so I can follow you if I’m not already.

What a nice holiday it was! Hubby has been off work since December 18 and I vowed to take off as much time as I could as well. Being self-employed it’s not as easy, but it’s something I am working on. Since Christmas and New Years both fell during the week, it made it much easier to take time off since everyone else was as well.

Hubby and I started our holiday off by playing hooky on the Friday before Christmas and going to Universal Studios for the day, just the two of us. Then there was running and Christmas and New Years. A lot of quality time with hubby and our families over the two weeks. I also had a lunch and movies date with my friend Angelina who finally had some time off after her crazy busy holiday season working retail. We saw the movie Wild after both reading the book and loving it.

As you can tell from all these fun photos, it has been a great holiday break.

It is going to be really hard to go back to work on Monday knowing we have a full 5-day week looking ahead of us. I have really enjoyed the holidays and I am sad to see them go.

Life is so busy these days as they always are during the holiday season. So much going on and my blogging time has taken a back seat. But I wanted to take a few minutes to share some Friday happiness and announce the winner of my 26.2 Bangle Bracelet giveaway…

1. We delivered 10 bikes to Toys For Tots this morning for our beloved Jingle Bikes For Kids program hubby and I started in 2011. This was our third year and it will continue in 2015 as well. Here is the back story behind our cause, in memory of my dad. It feels to good to give back. We are thankful for the bikes donated to us this year.

2. Our house at Christmas… I am a sucker for Christmas decorations. I love our tree and how mismatched the ornaments are – they all have special meaning. This year was the first since since bringing Blue home in 2011 that we have put the tree in the main living room. It’s been in the family room every other year to keep him from bothering it. The addition of the fireplace media center is a wonderful thing and adds to the coziness of it all.

3. We are running two races this weekend. This should be interesting since I have not run since Space Coast Marathon. The last few days I’ve finally not been sore and I feel like I can get out there again. All that’s left is my bruised big toe. I fear I am going to lose the nail… But alas, we are doing the Santa’s Twilight 5K tomorrow night on Honeymoon Island. On Sunday morning, we are running a virtual half marathon for Best Damn Race Cape Coral. I am looking forward to both very much!

4. My niece Autumn! We had a girls day last weekend and it was too much fun. She’s 7 now and so much fun shopping and having silly conversations with. She makes great company and is so considerate. I so treasure our time together.

5. And I have a winner for the 26.2 Bangle Bracelet from Milestones Sports Jewelry… I was so happy about the number of entries I received for this! I am very excited to announce that the random winner is…… Angelina from Run.Chew.Sparkle. Congrats Angelina! I will contact you via email!

Stay tuned soon as I will be working more with Milestones Sports Jewelry and will soon have a discount code so you can save 10% off any item in their store!

Another year is coming to an end… As I look through posts from this past year, it’s amazing how much has happened, how much was accomplished. Running, weight loss, personal growth, and more…. My blog has turned out to be the best form of a scrapbook I have ever done. And now it’s time for me to share my favorite posts of 2013. Since I just shared all my race recaps for 2013 yesterday, I did not include those in this list…